Alpha Centauri or Die!
1963 novel by Leigh Brackett
Alpha Centauri or Die! is a science fiction novel by American writer Leigh Brackett.
Publication
The novel is a fixup of two earlier short stories, "The Ark of Mars" (first published in the September 1953 issue of Planet Stories) and "Teleportress of Alpha C" (first published in the Winter 1954-1955 Planet Stories). Its first book publication was as half of Ace Double F-187 with Legend of Lost Earth by G. McDonald Wallis.
Summary
In the future, crewed interstellar flight is forbidden with only the government's robotic spaceships being permitted. Attempting to escape the regime, Kirby, a former starship pilot, and his wife Shari construct the "Ark of Mars", a refitted freighter named the Lucy B. Davenport and with their crew set out to a habitable planet around Alpha Centauri. They run through the government blockades and defeat a robotic pursuit ship in battle, before setting out on a five-year voyage to the new planet. However, after arriving, they begin to realize that they are not alone...
Influence and reception
Rich Horton's review was mixed.
“Alpha Centauri or Die!” enters the record as 1963 novel by Leigh Brackett. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alpha, Centauri and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Alpha Centauri or Die!” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Alpha, Centauri and novel provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15033515. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1954 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alpha Centauri or Die!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.